


It's Just Water

by Bellflower



Category: Samurai Warriors
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-04
Updated: 2011-05-04
Packaged: 2017-10-19 00:24:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/194855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellflower/pseuds/Bellflower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What’s the point of going out in the rain if you’re going to stay dry?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Just Water

The first time Motochika saw Mitsuhide was during a trip to the Mino province with his mother. She had come from there originally, and was visiting her family amongst the Saitou clan. They had wanted to see her son, of course. He was the heir of the Chosōkabe, and thus a very valuable political connection for them to have.

He, however, had no real interest in _them_. After formal introductions had been made he’d slipped away as fast as possible and set off to explore the Saitō Castle gardens.

After all, what young teenage boy would enjoy being called ‘Himewakako?’

That he was beautiful was not something he could deny, but he hated the fact that most people mistook him for a girl at first and would address him like he was one even after being corrected. It annoyed his father too, because it made arranging a match difficult. Motochika disliked the idea of someone else determining who he would marry but at least it meant that his father discouraged others from calling his boy ‘little princess’ whenever he was around. His mother, however, did not, which meant he was likely to be called as such for the entire length of the visit.

The gardens turned out to be rather lovely, and though he’d seen pretty much everything in them after a few days they ended up being where he spent almost _every_ day during the first week. The ponds were his favourite part; Motochika liked being close to the water. They were no ocean, but it was something.

At the start of the second week, on a very rainy day, he marched down to the largest pond undeterred and found something new. Or, rather, someone.

A shorter boy was stood next to the water’s edge, clutching a parasol that was far too big for him and staring intently at something. It would not have been a particularly unusual sight during bright days, but very few residents of the castle stepped outside when it was raining unless it was absolutely necessary. That made Motochika curious, and so he approached.

“Who are you?” he asked bluntly.

The other boy tore his gaze away from the pond and looked at Motochika curiously. He wasn’t just shorter; he was clearly younger as well. Perfectly straight black hair brushed his shoulders.

“Akechi Momomaru,” said the boy. “Why are you out in the rain without a parasol? You’ll get wet!”

“What’s the point of going out in the rain if you’re going to stay dry?” asked Motochika. “I _like_ getting wet.”

“But you might get sick!” Momomaru stared up, his eyes wide. “It’s not nice, getting sick. You get all shivery, your stomach hurts, and then you have to drink that green stuff, and it tastes really, really _bad_! You can’t leave your room for days.”

“Have you gotten sick that way before?”

“No, but Mother said that-“

“You should find out for yourself, Momomaru.”

Motochika looked away from the boy and at the pond. It was almost impossible to see _into_ it, what with the rain disturbing the surface, but he could not imagine that there was anything different to the usual in there.

When he looked back he was mildly surprised to see Momomaru putting his parasol down. Hesitantly, perhaps, and with a rather worried expression, but he still did it.

“Very good,” said Motochika, nodding; that was more like it. “What were you looking for, anyway?”

Momomaru’s expression became somewhat distressed. He turned to face the pond again, staring down at the water again but a lot less intently this time.

“Mother’s favourite comb,” he replied. “She lost it yesterday. I heard her talk about it earlier… she said she dropped it in the water and couldn’t find it. So I came out to find it for her… but…”

But he couldn’t see into the pond. Motochika found himself smiling a little. The sensible thing to do would have been to wait for the rain to stop and search _then_ , but this boy had not thought about that. His only thought had been to help his mother as soon as possible.

“There’s another way to find it, you know,” declared Motochika; he reached out and grabbed the closed parasol from a surprised Momomaru’s hands, dropping it to the floor afterwards. “Just get into the pond and stick your head underwater. It’ll be much easier searching like that, anyway.”

“But… I can’t!” said Momomaru, gaze moving from the parasol to Motochika’s face.

“Why not?”

“I’ll get too wet!”

“You’re wet already.”

“I… I’ve not put my head underwater before! It’s not safe!”

“You’ll be fine. I’ll help you!”

“But… I don’t know you!”

“My name is Motochika. _Now_ you know me.”

The two of them stared at one another for a while then. Motochika waited for another response silently, bearing a very determined expression and watching the rain start to drip from Momomaru’s hair.

As far as he was concerned, his plan was perfect. The comb could have drifted to parts of the pond you couldn’t reach from the edges anyway, so why spend any more time trying to look into it from above when that simply wasn’t possible? If Momomaru said no, Motochika had every intention of going in and finding the comb by himself. It was something to do, after all. Why be afraid of a little water?

“…alright,” whispered Momomaru eventually. “But… but you can’t go far from me! I can’t swim very far...”

 _Perfect_. Motochika’s slight smile became a wide one. He reached out and very firmly took one of the other boy’s hands.

“We’ll go in together,” he said.

After a good ten minutes of searching the pair of them found the comb; a triumphant and completely soaked Momomaru presented it to his beloved mother shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, doing so did not have the desired effect. Rather than being happy she was horrified at how wet her son was and immediately whisked him off to get him dry.

Motochika, in turn, was told off rather severely by his own mother for ‘leading that young boy into trouble.’

The next day, instead of heading to the gardens, he worked his way through the castle until he found Momomaru again. It turned out his mother _had_ been happy to get the comb back in the end, though she’d only expressed as such after warning her son about the dangers of getting wet once more. But Momomaru was not sick. He’d been in the wet for quite a while and was perfectly healthy, so he wasn’t really sure she was right about that any more.

They played together every day after that one. By the time Motochika and his mother had to return home, a strong enough friendship had been formed that Motochika was actually hoping he would get a chance to return to Mino in the near future. If it meant seeing Momomaru again, he was prepared to put up with being a little princess.

**Author's Note:**

> Gen featuring young Mitsuhide (as Momomaru, his rumoured childhood name historically) and Motochika. For those of you who don't know, historical Motochika was nicknamed 'Himewakako,' or Little Princess, as a child. Because he was just that beautiful. There's no way I'm not using that in my own headcanon. xD I plan a follow-up fic to this eventually, set in their older teens.


End file.
